It was a sunny autumn afternoon. A woman called police to report a “suspicious person” in a city park. Cops arrive and the woman points out this “suspicious” man. He was simply sitting on a park bench enjoying the sunny day. The woman told police that this conduct was suspicious because he was a single man and he should be working at this time of day. Furthermore, there was a girl’s cross country team running in the park. The caller was worried that the single man was “watching the girls run.”

The man hadn’t approached or spoken to any of the girls. He wasn’t following any of them. He wasn’t touching himself while staring at them. He was simply sitting in a city park on a sunny afternoon. Officers explained to the caller that the man wasn’t doing anything suspicious; and certainly not doing anything illegal.

The woman replied: “Better safe than sorry. THEY SAY that you should report suspicious people.”